Built Environment Skills In Schools (BESS) today (Monday 23rd March) urged construction employers to keep their eye on schools engagement and to utilise digital channels as much as possible during the COVID-19 situation.

To support and facilitate this digital careers revolution, BESS has introduced dozens of guides, webinars and CPD-accredited training courses for employers, with much of the content available through the CIC’s #RoadmapforChange platform.

The UK’s 4,000 school Careers Leaders provide information, advice and guidance to students. Without the traditional assembly talks and classroom activities from employers, they have expressed concern about their ability to provide timely insight, and have encouraged employers to go digital.

Kathryn Lennon-Johnson, founder of Built Environment Skills In Schools, said, “The current situation globally is making things very difficult for everyone, but it is vital to recognise the support required by those who haven’t yet joined the workforce. The world must look very daunting to them, but time won’t stand still and they need to make choices about career pathways and qualifications.

“Construction has a long-standing and well-established recruitment problem, so we have taken the initiative to support the needs of employers and Careers Leaders during this critical time. Digital content is a win-win for employers because it’s cost-effective to produce, it isn’t restricted by location, and it can be viewed thousands of times with no impact on quality.”

Some of the guides, templates and courses available to construction employers from BESS include the Employer Engagement Scorecard, 101 Low-Cost Ideas to Brilliant Schools Engagement, the #BuildBetterStuff podcast, an employee guide to creating impactful Simple Careers Videos, an employer guide to Helping Schools Meet the Gatsby Benchmarks, one-page cheat sheets for school acronyms and safeguarding, a Virtual Work Experience framework, and a 12-week Schools Engagement Bootcamp. Many of these are also available through the CIC’s #RoadmapforChange.